Selecting a Packet Loss Concealment Procedure

ABSTRACT

In accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention, disclosed is a method and an apparatus thereof for selecting a packet loss concealment procedure for a lost audio frame of a received audio signal. A method for selecting a packet loss concealment procedure comprises detecting an audio type of a received audio frame and determining a packet loss concealment procedure based on the audio type. In the method, detecting an audio type comprises determining a stability of a spectral envelope of signals of received audio frames.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.16/589,535 filed on Oct. 1, 2019, which is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 16/129,211 filed on Sep. 1, 2018 and now issued asU.S. Pat. No. 10,476,769, which is a continuation of U.S. applicationSer. No. 15/629,426 filed on Jun. 21, 2017 and now issued as U.S. Pat.No. 10,103,958, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.15/034,126 filed on May 3, 2016 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No.9,712,414, which is a national-phase application of PCT/SE2015/050530filed under 35 U.S.C. § 371 on May 12, 2015, which claims priority toU.S. Provisional Application No. 61/993,814 filed on May 15, 2014. Thecontents of all such applications is incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The disclosure relates to audio decoding and more particularly toselecting a packet loss concealment procedure in audio decoding.

BACKGROUND

Cellular communication networks evolve towards higher data rates,together with improved capacity and coverage. In the 3rd GenerationPartnership Project (3GPP) standardization body, several technologieshave been and are also currently being developed.

LTE (Long Term Evolution) is a recent standardised technology. It usesan access technology based on OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiplexing) for the downlink and Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) for theuplink. The resource allocation to wireless terminals (also known asuser equipment, UEs) on both downlink and uplink is generally performedadaptively using fast scheduling, taking into account the instantaneoustraffic pat e and radio propagation characteristics of each wirelessterminal. Assigning resources in both downlink and uplink is performedin the scheduler situated in the radio base station.

For transmissions of audio data, as for all data over wirelessinterfaces, there are occasions when data is lost, e.g. due to pathloss, interference, etc. When an audio frame is lost, a receiving audiodecoder can detect the lost audio frame and can then perform a packetloss concealment (PLC) procedure to generate audio which as good aspossible reduces the effects of the lost packet on the audio.

However, there are several possible PLCs procedures and it would bebeneficial to correctly select what PLC procedure to use in differentsituations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is now described, by way of example, with reference to theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a cellular network whereembodiments presented herein may be applied;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating audio frame transmissions toa wireless terminal of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic graph illustrating a spectral envelope of signalsof received audio frames;

FIGS. 4A-B are flow charts illustrating methods performed in a hostdevice being of FIG. 1 for selecting a packet loss concealmentprocedure;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing some components of the wirelessterminal of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing some components of the transcodingnode of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 7 shows one example of a computer program product comprisingcomputer readable means.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The invention will now be described more fully hereinafter withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which certain embodiments ofthe invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied inmany different forms and should not be construed as limited to theembodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided byway of example so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete,and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in theart. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout the description.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a cellular network 8 whereembodiments presented herein may be applied. The cellular network 8comprises a core network 3 and one or more radio base stations 1, herein the form of evolved Node Bs, also known as eNode Bs or eNBs. Theradio base station 1 could also be in the form of Node Bs, BTSs (BaseTransceiver Stations) and/or BSSs (Base Station Subsystems), etc. Theradio base station 1 provides radio connectivity to a plurality ofwireless terminals 2. The term wireless terminal is also known as mobilecommunication terminal, user equipment (UE), mobile terminal, userterminal, user agent, wireless device, machine-to-machine devices etc.,and can be, for example, what today are commonly known as a mobile phoneor a tablet/laptop with wireless connectivity or fixed mounted terminal.

The cellular network 8 may e.g. comply with any one or a combination ofLTE (Long Term Evolution), W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiplex),EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM (Global System for Mobilecommunication) GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), CDMA2000 (CodeDivision Multiple Access 2000), or any other current or future wirelessnetwork, such as LTE-Advanced, as long as the principles describedhereinafter are applicable.

Uplink (UL) 4 a communication from the wireless terminal 2 and downlink(DL) 4 b communication to the wireless terminal 2 between the wirelessterminal 2 and the radio base station 1 occur over a wireless radiointerface. The quality of the wireless radio interface to each wirelessterminal 2 can vary over time and depending on the position of thewireless terminal 2, due to effects such as fading, multipathpropagation, interference, etc.

The radio base station 1 is also connected to the core network 3 forconnectivity to central functions and an external network 7 such as thePublic Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and/or the Internet.

Audio data can be encoded and decoded by the wireless terminal and/or atranscoding node 5, being a network node arranged to perform transcodingof audio. The transcoding node 5 can e.g. be implemented in a MGW (MediaGateway), SPG (Session Border Gateway)/BGF (Border Gateway Function) orMRFP (Media Resource Function Processor). Hence, both the wirelessterminal 2 and the transcoding node 5 are host devices that comprise arespective audio decoder.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating audio frame transmissions toa wireless terminal of FIG. 1. When receiving audio e.g. for a voiceconversation or even streaming audio, the wireless terminal 2 receives astream of consecutive audio frames 15 a-c. Each audio frame, length ofe.g. 20-40 ms, is a digitally represented set of data and comprises asignal, i.e. an audio encoded in an appropriate format.

In this example, the wireless terminal 2 receives a first audio frame 15a and a second audio frame 15 b successfully. This allows the wirelessterminal 2 to decode the audio signal comprised in the audio frames 15a-b. However, e.g. due to poor radio conditions, the third audio frame15 c is not received successfully. The audio decoder in the wirelessterminal 2 detects the lost third audio frame and can then perform apacket loss concealment (PLC) procedure to generate audio which as goodas possible reduces the effects of the lost packet on the audio.

A problem is how to make a decision among a multitude of PLC procedureswithin an audio decoder such that that procedure is selected thatprovides the best possible audio quality.

More specifically, an audio decoder may deploy at least two differentPLC procedures, where one of them is especially suitable for musicsignals while a second PLC procedure is more suitable for non-musicsignals e.g. speech. In order to be able to choose the most suitable PLCprocedure, the (coded) audio signal that has been received in good i.e.error-free or non-erased packets (15 a-b), is analysed, and based onsuch an analysis the choice of the PLC procedure is made.

A particular problem is to tailor the decision of PLC selectionprocedure such that the specific individual strengths of the availablePLC procedures are utilised in a beneficial way. This involves finding asuitable signal related metric that is associated with the analysis ofthe received audio signal (or coding parameters thereof), and to find asuitable decision procedure that selects the PLC procedure based on themetric. For frame-based audio codecs it is also desirable that the PLCprocedure decision can be made on a frame-by-frame basis, i.e. that adecision can be made in response to a currently received good audioframe and earlier received audio data.

One recent PLC procedure for audio is a so-called Phase ECU. This is aprocedure that provides particularly high quality of the restored audiosignal after packet loss in case the signal is a music signal.

The Phase ECU method consists in a concealment based on sinusoidal phaseevolution. It is based on sinusoidal analysis and synthesis paradigmoperated in DFT (discrete Fourier transform) domain. It is assumed thatan audio signal is composed of a limited number of individual sinusoidalcomponents. In the analysis step the sinusoidal components of apreviously synthesized audio frame are identified. In the synthesis stepthese sinusoidal components are phased evolved to the time instant ofthe lost frame. Interpolative sinusoidal frequency refinement is done toincrease the frequency resolution over that of the DFT. Instead ofzeroing or magnitude adjusting DFT coefficients not belonging tospectral peaks, the original DFT magnitudes are retained while adaptivephase randomization is used.

Another class of PLC procedures are those that incorporate a pitchmodel. An underlying assumption of such procedures is that the signalmay contain voiced segments of human speech, in which the signal isperiodic with the fundamental frequency of a glottal excitation. Throughincorporation of such a pitch model, the PLC procedure may achieveparticularly good quality of the restored audio signal in case thesignal is voiced speech.

It is known that the Phase ECU works very well for tonal music (singleor multiple instruments playing sustained tones) and also for complexmusic signals (orchestra, pop music). On the other hand, there aresometimes deficiencies with the phase ECU for speech signal andparticularly for voiced speech.

On the other hand it is notable that PLC procedures incorporating apitch model often do not perform optimally on music signals and periodicgeneric audio signals. Rather, it is observed that general periodicaudio signals like tonal music (single or multiple instruments playingsustained tones) are less suitable for PLC procedures using a pitchmodel.

FIG. 3 is a schematic graph illustrating a spectral envelope 10 ofsignals of received audio frames. The horizontal axis representsfrequency and the vertical axis represents amplitude, e.g. power, etc.

Looking now to both FIGS. 2 and 3, concepts will be presented regardinghow a PLC procedure is selected in an audio decoder. It is to be notedthat this can be performed in an audio decoder of the wireless terminaland/or the transcoder node of FIG. 1.

One solution to the selection of PLC procedure is, in an audio decoderdeploying at least two different PLC procedures, to use a spectralenvelope stability measure in the selection of the PLC procedure. Thisinvolves a first step of analysing at least a previously received audiosignal frame with regards to its spectral envelope stability relative tothe spectral envelope of at least one further previously received audiosignal frame. The result of this analysis step is an envelope stabilitymeasure that is used in a second step. In that second step the envelopestability measure is used in a decision algorithm that in response to atleast that measure selects one out of the multitude of PLC procedures,in case a subsequent audio frame is erased or deteriorated as aconsequence of a loss or transmission error of an audio packet.

It is assumed that the audio decoder receives packets of coded audiodata, which is structured in sets as shown in FIG. 2. Each set of codedaudio data represents a frame 15 a-c of the coded audio signal. The setsof coded audio data are produced by an audio encoder as the result ofthe encoding of the original audio signal. The sets of coded audio dataare transmitted in packets to the decoder, typically as one or multiplesets per packet or in some cases as partial sets per packet.

After reception of the packets the audio receiver identifies thecorrectly received sets of coded audio data that can be decoded by theaudio decoder. Sets corresponding to corrupted or lost packets areunavailable for decoding and the corresponding audio signal frames needrather to be restored by one of the available PLC procedures. Theselection of the PLC procedure to be used for a given lost audio frameis described in the following.

First, the audio type is detected (see step 40 of FIGS. 4A-B) where atleast one previously correctly received audio frame or its relatedcoding parameters are analysed and stored for a potential subsequentframe loss in some memory (e.g. data memory 53 of FIG. 5 or 63 of FIG.6). Typically, this analysis is done with the most recent correctlyreceived audio frame prior to the loss. The analysis evaluates whetherthe audio signal is likely a speech signal or a music signal. The resultof this analysis can be a measure defined in the value range from e.g. 0to 1, where a value close to 0 represents a high likelihood that thesignal is speech and where value close to 1 represents a high likelihoodthat the signal is music, or vice versa.

One embodiment of the analysis step is to use spectral envelopestability as a measure for the likelihood if the signal frame is speechor music. The background of using spectral envelope stability as such anindicator is the observation that music tends to have a relativelystable spectral envelope over time or that the spectral envelope evolvesslowly over time while the opposite is observed for speech. This measureevaluates the variability of the spectral envelope of the audio signalin the domain of spectral sub-band energies (also known as scale factorsor norms). It is notable that this measure can e.g. also be used in anaudio codec for controlling the noise floor of spectral sub-bands.

One way of calculating the spectral envelope stability measure is tocompare a spectral envelope representation, e.g. a magnitude spectrum ofthe most recent correctly received frame with the spectral enveloperepresentation of at least one earlier received frame, of which arepresentation has been stored in a memory. If there tends to berelatively strong changes in the envelope, the signal is assumed to bespeech-like otherwise it is assumed to represent music. Accordingly, theenvelope stability value will be set to values close to 0 or,respectively, close to 1. An inventive insight is that for frame lossesof signals where the envelope stability indicator prior to the lossindicates a high stability, a PLC more suitable for music signals shouldbe selected.

The actual decision of the PLC procedure is done in a second step, Seestep 44 of FIGS. 4A-B. Here the envelope stability measure calculated ina good frame prior to the frame loss is first restored from a memory andthen compared to a threshold. As an example the threshold may be 0.5. Ifthe envelope stability measure exceeds the threshold, the PLC procedurefor music signals is chosen, otherwise that for speech signals.

According to one embodiment, the described envelope stability baseddecision method is used in one level in a multi-level decision method.Here, a first decision is made based on the envelope stability measurewhether the PLC procedure more suitable for music is selected. Again, ifthe stability measure is above a certain threshold, the music signal PLCwill be selected. If however this is not the case, a second decisionmethod may be involved that compares other measures derived during thelast good audio frame against a certain threshold. Examples for othermeasures are parameters that can be used for discrimination of voicedspeech from unvoiced speech, like a pitch prediction gain (long termprediction gain) or e.g. the tilt of the envelope spectrum. If thesevalues indicate that the audio signal is likely voiced speech (throughrelatively large values), then the selector chooses the PLC procedurethat is more suitable for speech signals, otherwise the PLC proceduresuitable for music is selected.

According to a further embodiment the PLC procedure decision may besidesthe envelope stability measure as one decision criterion also involvethe calculation of further measures and their comparison againstsuitable threshold. Such measures may e.g. be a VAD (Voice activitydetector) flag, power parameters, measures about the tonality of thesignal, measures about how harmonic the signal is, measures about howspectrally complex the signal is, etc. A very tonal signal would have arelatively small number of distinct spectral peaks that are relativelystable compared to some earlier audio frame. A harmonic signal wouldhave distinct spectral peaks at a fundamental frequency and integermultiples thereof. A spectrally complex audio signal (like e.g. fromorchestra music with many contributing instruments) would have arelatively large number of spectral peaks with unclear relationship toeach other. The decision method could take such additional measures intoaccount, besides the envelope stability, when determining the PLCprocedure to be used for the lost frame.

According to one embodiment, the PLC procedure that is most suitable tobe used for detected music signals, or for signals with relativelystable spectral envelope, tonal signals, and/or spectrally complexsignals is the phase ECU. Signals where rather another PLC procedure,with pitch model should be selected are those that are classified asspeech and especially voiced speech, and signals that have a harmonicspectral structure and/or a spectral tilt typical for voiced speech.

FIGS. 4A-B are flow charts illustrating methods performed in an audiodecoder of a host device (wireless terminal and/or transcoding node ofFIG. 1) for selecting a packet loss concealment procedure.

In a detect audio type step 40, an audio type of a received audio frameis detected. This may comprise determining the audio type to be eithermusic or speech. Optionally, there are more possible audio types,potentially comprising an audio type of ‘unknown’.

In one embodiment, the audio type is determined to be music when thespectral envelope of received audio signals is stable. In such a case,the audio type is determined to be speech when the spectral envelope ofreceived audio signals is unstable. Stable and unstable can e.g. bedefined by comparing with a threshold value when the stability of thespectral envelope is a scalar.

Optionally, hysteresis is used in this step to prevent hopping back andforth in the audio type detection. Alternatively or additionally, aMarkov chain can be used to increase stability of the classifying.

In a determine PLC procedure step 44, a packet loss concealmentprocedure is determined based on the audio type.

The method can be repeated as new audio frames are received, to ensurethe most recent audio type is determined.

FIG. 4B illustrates a method for selecting a packet loss concealment,procedure according to one embodiment. This method is similar to themethod illustrated in FIG. 4A, and only new or modified steps, inrelation to FIG. 4A, will be described.

Here, the detect audio type step 40 comprises an optional determinestability of spectral envelope step 41 and/or an optional determine 2ndmeasurement step 42.

In the optional determine stability of spectral envelope step 41, astability of a spectral envelope of signals of received audio frames isdetermined. As explained above, this can be achieved by comparing aspectral envelope of signals of two (or more) correctly receivedconsecutive audio frames.

Optionally, a scalar measurement related to the spectral envelope ofreceived signals of received audio frames is calculated, e.g. with avalue between 0 and 1 as described above.

In the optional determine 2nd measurement step 42, a second measurementof a received audio frame is determined. The second measurementcomprises an indicator selected from the group consisting of pitchprediction gain, tilt of the spectral envelope, voice activity detectorflag, power parameters, measure of a tonality of the signal, measure ofhow harmonic the signal is, and measure of how spectrally complex thesignal is.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing some components of the wirelessterminal 2 of FIG. 1. A processor 50 is provided using any combinationof one or more of a suitable central processing unit (CPU),multiprocessor, microcontroller, digital signal processor (DSP),application specific integrated circuit etc., capable of executingsoftware instructions 56 stored in a memory 54, which can thus be acomputer program product. The processor 50 can be configured to executethe software instructions 56 to perform any one or more embodiments ofthe methods described with reference to FIGS. 4A-B above.

The memory 54 can be any combination of read and write memory (RAM) andread only memory (ROM). The memory 54 also comprises persistent storage,which, for example, can be any single one or combination of magneticmemory, optical memory, solid state memory or even remotely mountedmemory.

A data memory 53 is also provided for reading and/or storing data duringexecution of software instructions in the processor 50. The data memory53 can be any combination of read and write memory (RAM) and read onlymemory (ROM).

The wireless terminal 2 further comprises an I/O interface 52 forcommunicating with other external entities. The I/O interface 52 alsoincludes a user interface comprising a microphone, speaker, display,etc. Optionally, an external microphone and/or speaker/headphone can beconnected to the wireless terminal.

The wireless terminal 2 also comprises one or transceivers 51,comprising analogue and digital components, and a suitable number ofantennas 55 for wireless communication with wireless terminals as shownin FIG. 1.

The wireless terminal 2 comprises an audio encoder and an audio decoder.These may be implemented in the software instructions 56 executable bythe processor 50 or using separate hardware (not shown).

Other components of the wireless terminal 2 are omitted in order not toobscure the concepts presented herein.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing some components of the transcodingnode 5 of FIG. 1. A processor 60 is provided using any combination ofone or more of a suitable central processing unit (CPU), multiprocessor,microcontroller, digital signal processor (DSP), application specificintegrated circuit etc., capable of executing software instructions 66stored in a memory 64, which can thus be a computer program product. Theprocessor 60 can be configured to execute the software instructions 66to perform any one or more embodiments of the methods described withreference to FIGS. 4A-B above.

The memory 64 can be any combination of read and write memory (RAM) andread only memory (ROM). The memory 64 also comprises persistent storage,which, for example, can be any single one or combination of magneticmemory, optical memory, solid state memory or even remotely mountedmemory.

A data memory 63 is also provided for reading and/or storing data duringexecution of software instructions in the processor 60. The data memory63 can be any combination of read and memory (RAM) and read only memory(ROM).

The transcoding node 5 further comprises an I/O interface 62 forcommunicating with other external entities such as the wireless terminalof FIG. 1 (via the radio base station 1).

The transcoding node 5 comprises an audio encoder and an audio decoder.These may be implemented in the software instructions 66 executable bythe processor 60 or using separate hardware (not shown).

Other components of the transcoding node 5 are omitted in order not toobscure the concepts presented herein.

FIG. 7 shows one example of a computer program product 90 comprisingcomputer readable means. On this computer readable means a computerprogram 91 can be stored, which computer program can cause a processorto execute a method according to embodiments described herein. In thisexample, the computer program product is an optical disc, such as a CD(compact disc) or a DVD (digital versatile disc) or a Blue-Ray disc. Asexplained above, the computer program product could also be embodied ina memory of a device, such as the computer program product 54 of FIG. 5or the computer program product 64 of FIG. 6. While the computer program91 is here schematically shown as a track on the depicted optical disk,the computer program can be stored in any way which is suitable for thecomputer program product, such as a removable solid state memory (e.g. aUniversal Serial Bus (USB) stick).

Here now follows a set of embodiments to further describe the conceptspresented herein.

The first embodiment comprises a method for selecting a packet lossconcealment procedure, the method being performed in an audio decoderand comprising the steps of: detecting (40) an audio type of a receivedaudio frame; and determining (44) a packet loss concealment procedurebased on the audio type.

The second embodiment comprises the method according to the firstembodiment, wherein the step of detecting (40) an audio type comprisesthe step of: determining (41) a stability of a spectral envelope ofsignals of received audio frames.

The third embodiment comprises the method according to the secondembodiment, wherein the step of determining (41) a stability of aspectral envelope of signals of received audio frames comprisescomparing a spectral envelope of signals of two (or more) correctlyreceived consecutive audio frames.

The fourth embodiment comprises the method according to the second orthird embodiment, wherein the step of determining (41) a stability of aspectral envelope of received signals of received audio frames comprisescalculating a scalar measurement related to the spectral envelope ofreceived signals of received audio frames.

The fifth embodiment comprises the method according to any one ofsecond, third and fourth embodiment, wherein the step of detecting (40)an audio type further comprises the step of: determining (42) a secondmeasurement of a received audio frame, the second measurement comprisingan indicator selected from the group consisting of pitch predictiongain, tilt of the spectral envelope, voice activity detector flag, powerparameters, measure of a tonality of the signal, measure of how harmonicthe signal is, and measure of how spectrally complex the signal is.

The sixth embodiment comprises the method according to any one of thepreceding embodiments, wherein the step of detecting (40) an audio typecomprises determining the audio type to be either music or speech.

The seventh embodiment comprises the method according to the sixthembodiment when depending on the second embodiment, wherein the step ofdetecting (40) art audio type comprises determining the audio type to bemusic when the spectral envelope of received audio signals is stable anddetermining the audio type to be speech when the spectral envelope ofreceived audio signals is unstable.

The eighth embodiment comprises a host device (2, 5) for selecting apacket loss concealment procedure, the host device comprising aprocessor (50, 60) and a memory (54, 64) storing instructions (56, 66)that, when executed by the processor, causes the host device (2, 5) to:detect an audio type of a received audio frame; and determine a packetloss concealment procedure based on the audio type.

The ninth embodiment comprises the host device (2, 5) according to theeight embodiment, wherein the instructions to detecting an audio typecomprise instructions that, when executed by the processor, causes thehost device (2, 5) to determine a stability of a spectral envelope ofsignals of received audio frames.

The tenth embodiment comprises the host device (2, 5) according to theninth embodiment, wherein the instructions to determine a stability of aspectral envelope of signals of received audio frames compriseinstructions that, when executed by the processor, causes the hostdevice (2, 5) to compare a spectral envelope of signals (or two more)correctly received consecutive audio frames.

The eleventh embodiment comprises the host device (2, 5) according tothe ninth or tenth embodiment, wherein the instructions to determine astability of a spectral envelope of received signals of received audioframes comprise instructions that, when executed by the processor,causes the host device (2, 5) to calculate a scalar measurement relatedto the spectral envelope of received signals of received audio frames.

The twelfth embodiment comprises the host device (2, 5) according to anyone of ninth, tenth and eleventh embodiment, wherein the instructions todetermine a packet loss concealment procedure further compriseinstructions that, when executed by the processor, causes the hostdevice (2, 5) to determine a second measurement of a received audioframe, the second measurement comprising an indicator selected from thegroup consisting of pitch prediction gain, tilt of the spectralenvelope, voice activity detector flag, power parameters, measure of atonality of the signal, measure of how harmonic the signal is, andmeasure of how spectrally complex the signal is.

The thirteenth embodiment comprises the host device (2, 5) according toany one of the eighth to twelfth embodiment, wherein the instructions todetect an audio type comprise instructions that, when executed by theprocessor, causes the host device (2, 5) to determine the audio type tobe either music or speech.

The fourteenth embodiment comprises the host device (2, 5) according tothirteenth embodiment when depending on the ninth embodiment, whereinthe instructions to detect an audio type comprise instructions that,when executed by the processor, causes the host device (2, 5) todetermine the audio type to be music when the spectral envelope ofreceived audio signals is stable and determining the audio type to bespeech when the spectral envelope of received audio signals is unstable.

The fifteenth embodiment comprises the host device (2) according to anyone of the eighth to fourteenth embodiment wherein the host device is awireless terminal (2).

The sixteenth embodiment comprises the host device (5) according to anyone of the eighth to fourteenth embodiments wherein the host device (5)is a transcoding node arranged to perform transcoding of audio.

The seventeenth embodiment comprises a computer program (66, 91) forselecting a packet loss concealment procedure, the computer programcomprising computer program code which, when run on a host device (2, 5)causes the host device (2, 5) to: detect an audio type of a receivedaudio frame; and determine a packet loss concealment procedure based onthe audio type.

The eighteenth embodiment comprises a computer program product (64, 90)comprising a computer program according to the seventeenth embodimentand a computer readable means on which the computer program is stored.

The invention has mainly been described above with reference to a fewembodiments, However, as is readily appreciated by a person skilled inthe art, other embodiments than the ones disclosed above are equallypossible within the scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for selecting a packet loss concealmentprocedure, the method comprising: detecting an audio type of a receivedaudio frame, wherein detecting an audio type comprises determining astability of a spectral envelope of signals of received audio frames;and in response to detection of a frame loss, determining a packet lossconcealment procedure based at least partially on the audio type of thepreceding correctly received audio frame.
 2. The method according toclaim 1, wherein determining the stability of the spectral envelope ofsignals of received audio frames comprises comparing the spectralenvelope of signals of at least two correctly received consecutive audioframes.
 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining thestability of the spectral envelope of signals of received audio framescomprises calculating a scalar measurement related to the spectralenvelope of signals of received audio frames.
 4. The method according toclaim 1, wherein detecting an audio type comprises determining the audiotype to be either music or speech.
 5. The method according to claim 4,wherein detecting an audio type comprises determining the audio type tobe music when the spectral envelope of signals of received audio framesis stable and determining the audio type to be speech when the spectralenvelope of signals of received audio frames is unstable.
 6. The methodaccording to claim 4, wherein a sinusoidal phase evolution based packetloss concealment procedure, Phase ECU, is selected in case thedetermining of the audio type indicates music as an audio type.
 7. Anapparatus for selecting a packet loss concealment procedure, theapparatus comprising: a processor; and a memory storing instructionsthat, when executed by the processor, causes the apparatus to: detect anaudio type of a received audio frame, wherein detecting an audio typecomprises determining a stability of a spectral envelope of signals ofreceived audio frames; and in response to detection of a frame loss,determine a packet loss concealment procedure based at least partiallyon the audio type of the preceding correctly received audio frame. 8.The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the instructions todetermine the stability of the spectral envelope of signals of receivedaudio frames comprise instructions that, when executed by the processor,cause the apparatus to compare the spectral envelope of signals of atleast two correctly received consecutive audio frames.
 9. The apparatusaccording to claim 7, wherein the instructions to determine thestability of the spectral envelope of signals of received audio framescomprise instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause theapparatus to calculate a scalar measurement related to the spectralenvelope of signals of received audio frames.
 10. The apparatusaccording to claim wherein the instructions to detect an audio typecomprise instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause theapparatus to determine the audio type to be either music or speech. 11.The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the instructions to detectan audio type comprise instructions that, when executed by theprocessor, cause the apparatus to determine the audio type to be musicwhen the spectral envelope of signals of received audio frames is stableand to determine the audio type to be speech when the spectral envelopeof signals of received audio frames is unstable.
 12. The apparatusaccording to claim 7, wherein the apparatus is an audio decoder.
 13. Theapparatus according to claim 7, wherein the apparatus is comprised in atranscoding node arranged to perform transcoding of audio.
 14. Anon-transitory computer readable-medium storing a computer programcomprising program instructions that, when executed by processingcircuitry of an apparatus, configure the apparatus to select a packetloss concealment procedure, said program instructions includinginstructions configuring the apparatus to: detect an audio type of areceived audio frame, wherein detecting an audio type comprisesdetermining a stability of a spectral envelope of signals of receivedaudio frames; and in response to detection of a frame loss, determine apacket loss concealment procedure based at least partially on the audiotype of the preceding correctly received audio frame.